Book Review: The Conscience of a Conservative
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The Conscience of a Conservative, by Barry Goldwater with a new introduction by Patrick J. Buchanan. (1990, Regnery Publishing, Inc., ISBN 978-0-89526-540-1).
This slim volume is Barry Goldwater’s manifesto. He ran for President in 1964 and lost to Lyndon B. Johnson.
Goldwater’s book discusses at length such topics as states’ rights, civil rights, freedom as it pertains to farmers and workers, both taxation and spending, the welfare state generally, and education.
Arguably the most important part of his book, however, is discussion of the perils of power, especially how it erodes our liberty. He ends this discussion with the following statement:
“The turn will come when we entrust the conduct of our affairs to men who understand that their first duty as public officials is to divest themselves of the power they have been given. It will come when Americans, in hundreds of communities throughout the nation, decide to put the man in office who is pledged to enforce the Constitution and restore the Republic. Who will proclaim in a campaign speech: “I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is ‘needed’ before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ ‘interests,’ I shall reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.”
Would that those now running to represent us could make such a speech – and mean it.
Available at www.amazon.com in a variety of editions.
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